Love Throw A Line
by Exquisiteliltart
Summary: Prompt: Emma gets her first eyeful of what's under all those uptight mayor suits, while she's on the Jolly Roger. She's supposed to be manning the ropes and paying attention to important, earnest sailory stuff, but, um ... oh dear. Eyes have a mind of their own.


Time is always relative. Emma felt like she was in training for an upcoming fight. She wasn't sure what she was up against, but she knew how high the stakes were. For now, she was trapped on a boat in the middle of the sea in an unfamiliar land.

Time really was an anomaly in Neverland. The dials and nautical levers of the Jolly Roger were malfunctioning in peculiar ways, and the maps were useless. This land had more than one sun so even telling time and finding the correct direction to travel proved to be a great challenge. Though the Captain assured all that his ship knew which channel to navigate by the power of magic and faith, the crew members each had their own private doubts. The tension would be thick in any circumstance considering the group and their history, but with Henry's life on the line, and the unlikely team venturing into the unknown this boat ride was far from a pleasure cruise.

It was also boring. The journey was taking far longer to find land than anyone had anticipated, and they were all about out of patience. Emma itched to do something-anything- so she spent her time learning the ins and outs of sailing. It fulfilled a long-held pirate fantasy she had, and the physicality of it was a welcome distraction. Although, for Emma, There was another type of distraction altogether on board: Regina.

Emma could only tie so many knots and look through the telescope into the endless blue so many times before her mind wandered over to the brunette who preferred to spend her days on board practicing and strengthening her magic. Emma had always found Regina beautiful, even when she was full of rage and threatening, but now she just seemed like a worried mother: still radiant, but heartbroken.

The days dragged on, everyone keeping to themselves for the most part. A routine was established: wake, eat, lounge, prepare, and on… the meetings they held as a group on tactics and plans of attack proved fruitless and always devolved into pointless arguments.

The long quiet nights also became routinely sleepless for Emma, who tried to exhaust herself enough through the day to rest, but she couldn't get used the motion of the boat, and her mind wouldn't stop worrying on the aforementioned distractions. She was also a little jealous of her crew mates. Everyone else seemed to sleep just fine, and admittedly Gold even looked kind of cute in his little scrooge-esque nightgown and cap that he had conjured up from the magic sleep wear R' Us.

Charming and Snow had their own little hammock bunk on the midlevel of the ship, and the Captain, he spent his evenings drinking rum and playing cards up at the ship's helm and slept during the day.

Regina always slept on the top bunk, with a bandana over her eyes to act as a sleep mask, and a little magic force field cradling her like a temperpedic angel's cloud. 'Lucky bitch,' Emma thought. She tossed around on the lumpy mattress on the bottom bunk; her pillow was stuffed with pointy straw. In her past, she had slept in worse accommodations, and she reminded herself of that every night.

…..

One evening, Emma felt exhausted and skipped dinner. She went down to her bunk to rest. She had just drifted to the place between wakefulness and sleep when the Captain's voice rang out from above.

"All hands on deck!"

The Jolly Roger bobbed and weaved on the blooming waves. Dusk had just begun to settle over Neverland. The sun hovered on the horizon slowly but steadily sinking beneath the glistening water. The sky turned a brilliant blue, and the low hanging clouds billowed out over the sea.

Everyone rushed to the deck, springing into action to prepare for the onslaught of the rapidly approaching storm. The wind picked up instantly, and waves crashed against the sides of the boat, water pouring over onto the deck as rain dumped from the sky. The savior couldn't shake her exhaustion, she felt as if she was under a spell. It was hard for her to focus on the tasks at hand. She was worried about Regina who was holding on for dear life to a loose rope.

"Emma, look at those swells! Oh, my God!" Charming yelled, pointing at the relentless, pummeling waves as they shook the Jolly Roger around the stormy sea like a rag doll.

"Uh huh…" Emma gulped hard; her eyes were not focused on the darkened horizon, or the white capped ocean waves, but behind her. A particularly rough wind gust bucked the ship, and in process tossed Regina backwards. The scarf she wore unfurled and blew away into the darkness, and the fragile shell buttons on her maroon silk blouse popped free exposing her lacy black bra.

Losing her footing, Emma reeled backwards with the rocking boat and slid down the wet slippery deck, smacking into the wall next to Regina.

"Ow," she deadpanned, rubbing the back of her head, and pulling strings of water darkened blonde hair out of her eyes. Her attention turned to Regina who was scrunched up next to her, her lips parted as she breathed out white puffs of vapor. They were both drenched, the chill of the salt water felt down to their bones.

"Are you okay?" Emma instinctively wrapped her arms around the other woman, wide green eyes meeting dark brown. They stared at one another for a full beat, and Regina nodded in staccato repetition, before another huge wave shook the boat, and they crumpled into a heap, tangled together.

For an odd moment, Emma was convinced she hadn't actually woken from her half-sleep. Her lips were pressed flush against Regina's chest, and her cheeks were scrunched between her breasts which were acting like bookends on Emma's face. She smelled warm, and sweet like the heartbeat of magic. Emma was hopelessly intoxicated and Regina wasn't making any motion to move away at all.

It was neither the time nor the place for a heartfelt romantic moment unfortunately, and soon the rocking boat forced them apart. Emma rolled around the floor of the ship, before she semi regained her ability to function and sprung up to help keep the boat afloat.


End file.
